August to December Exhibitions and Events

Transcription

1 August to December 2012 Exhibitions and Events

2 Crafts Study Centre: Research News Research in the field of modern craft lies at the heart of the Crafts Study Centre s activities and core values. Indeed, the Centre s status as a Research Centre of the University for the Creative Arts confirms its importance. Research takes many forms. At the time of writing, the Centre s Collections Manager is concluding a major long term project to catalogue the extensive Peter Collingwood ethnographic and sample collections (work undertaken by two University postgraduate students, Giuseppina Sapia and Sarah Steel) and preparing an essay for publication. Research students from companion Universities use the collections and archives for research into their PhD subjects, and the Centre has very fond memories of the late Emmanuel Cooper who worked extensively on the archives to support his important and highly praised biography for Yale University Press, Lucie Rie: modernist potter. The SCARLET + Project The Centre is shortly to apply a new technology to the understanding of its collections. Augmented Reality is a cutting-edge technology that allows iphone users to access museum objects, archives and their related environments. Mediated by Mimas at the University of Manchester and funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee, this year-long project will enable the Crafts Study Centre to present its collections in new and imaginative ways for the benefit of its audiences. In addition to this work, the Centre welcomed Lizann Mickelson, an MA student at Richmond American University in London as an intern, and she focused on detailed research into the models of furniture from the recently acquired Alan Peters archive as well as supporting the highly-successful collaborative project with Siobhan Davies Dance, Side by Side. The Trustees of the Crafts Study Centre have appointed a Postdoctoral Fellow in Modern Craft to work on a specific archive to develop our understanding and knowledge in innovative new ways and further our mission to research in the field. Stephen Knott s research proposal Working class, middle class, evening class considers the importance of evening classes, part-time and self-directed learning in crafts to craftspeople who are represented in the Centre s collections. International News Magdalene Odundo, Professor of Ceramics, has undertaken a number of recent international visits including a teaching residency at The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design, North Carolina; she was guest visiting artist at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington and was presented with the outstanding African Artist Award at the first African Heritage Annual Award in Nairobi. Front cover: Alison Britton, Squirl, 2009 Opposite page: Lucie Rie, photo by courtesy of Yvonne Mayer

3 Robin Tanner Until 15 December 2012 This exhibition reflects on the contribution to art and education made by Robin Tanner ( ). It displays a series of his pastoral etchings: evocative and romantic images of the Wiltshire countryside under the threat of change. But the exhibition is also intended to evoke something of Tanner s passionate commitment to art education, especially for primary school children, which he promoted as a tireless and engaging Inspector for Schools. Robin Tanner had an extensive craft address book. He was a long time friend of Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie. The hand block printers Dorothy Larcher and Phyllis Barron made him the executors of their collection and it was in gathering these lengths and samples together that Tanner became deeply involved in the founding history of the Crafts Study Centre, becoming a Trustee when the Centre was started in The exhibition considers the sensitive and considered collecting of craft objects by Robin and his wife Heather. They collected for use as much as display, and the exhibition features Arts and Crafts furniture and their breakfast service - an elegant set by Lucie Rie. The exhibition pays a warm tribute to one of craft s pioneer figures and it is accompanied by a visual record of Robin and Heather (produced by Margaret Benton) revealing the practice of etching and the concerns the Tanners felt for the fast-changing rural landscape of England and their precious corner of North Wiltshire. Robin Tanner, The Gamekeeper s Cottage

4 Ismini Samanidou Topography: recording place - mapping surface Until 6 October 2012 Ismini Samanidou works in woven textiles linking the ideas of cultural history, the poetics of place and the concept of relationship. These are expressed in sensitive small-scale hangings as well as extensive installations where she explores the interplay between surface, wall, room and space. For her first solo museum exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre Samanidou presents a cloud series relating to ideas about time, place and change, and they can be seen as alternative landscapes in the sky. She remarks that weaving combines a certainty, a methodology of process and mathematical logic, but at the same time it retains a sense of magic, allowing me to construct an entirely new surface out of loosed threads. The exhibition is presented in partnership with The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design, University of North Carolina, Asheville and transfers there from 18 January to 1 March A fully illustrated 38pp catalogue with an essay by exhibition curator Katie A Lee is available priced Artist s Talk Wednesday 19 September to 7.00pm 5.00 to include a glass of wine The talk starts at 6.00pm Tickets for the talk by Ismini Samanidou must be paid for in advance and numbers are strictly limited. Thinking about clouds

5 Cave, 2012 Life and Still Life 16 October to 15 December 2012 In 2009 Alison Britton curated the exhibition Three by One at the Crafts Study Centre which included pieces from both Ethel Mairet s and Bernard Leach s study collections of objects that inspired and informed them in engendering their innovative practice. In this exhibition Britton will show a selection of objects from her own study collection of other people s work - paintings, photographs, drawings, pots, tableware - as a framework for a group of her new pots, mainly in red clay, which she started to use after a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan in A few ghostly older pieces are also contributing a paler background, and unusually in her work these are largely white. Alison Britton: Artist s Talk Wednesday 7 November to 7.00pm 5.00 Talk starts at 6.00pm. Tickets must be paid for in advance and numbers are strictly limited. Float, All images for Alison Britton by Philip Sayer Alison Britton is represented by Mardsen Woo Gallery, London

6 Air 3 20 October to 10 November 2012 The University for the Creative Arts offers opportunities for emerging makers to work within the creative learning environment to develop practice and engage with the student and academic cohort. The craft artists in residence for 2012 have collaborated to curate and present this pop up selling exhibition. It is the third in a successful series, showing innovative work in a diverse range of craft media including jewellery and metalwork, textiles, glass and ceramics. The Artists in Residence include Sarah Wiberley, Joanne Wombwell, Nao Fukumoto, Harriet Knightley, Hannah Winton, Jeanne Lewi and GonnyGlass.

7 Jane Adams, Large Twisted Brooch Porcelain vessel by Takeshi Yasuda How to write about craft: a workshop Wednesday 24 October 2012 Wednesday 14 November to 4.00pm Tickets are free but must be booked in advance. If there is sufficient demand places may also be reserved for a successor workshop to be held in January A workshop hosted by the Director of the Crafts Study Centre Professor Simon Olding and independent curator and writer Sara Roberts. The seminar will consider general issues of writing for the field using examples from current discourse in exhibition texts, journals and blogs. Does writing about craft require special rules and guidelines? Who is writing with clarity and conviction about craft practice and process? The workshop is aimed at emerging writers as well as craft makers. Thomas Ingmire, Calligraphy... some thoughts How to photoshop the craft image Saturday 25 August and Saturday 15 September to 3.30pm Tickets tickets per session only and a place is secured by advance payment only. The demands of digital photography as a means of recording and celebrating the craft object has been brought into everyone s reach by new technology and images of craft are everywhere. But the skills required to light and arrange materials such as glass, silver, textiles and ceramics to the best purposes requires creative as well as technical skill. These workshops will focus on the postproduction of the digital image and the techniques of photoshop. They are led by the acclaimed and experienced digital photographer David Westwood who has worked extensively with the collections of the Craft Study Centre.

8 Heritage Open Day Behind the scenes at the Crafts Study Centre 11.00am to noon Thursday 6 September 2012 Ikat Belt by Mary Restieaux Tickets are free but must be booked in advance as numbers are limited to 8 places. A tour of the Crafts Study Centre led by Professor Simon Olding. The tour will reflect on the development of the collections and exhibition programme as well as enable participants to see a range of the craft collections drawn specially from the stores. Drawings by Bernard Leach

9 Crafts Study Centre University for the Creative Arts Falkner Road Farnham Surrey GU9 7DS T: W: Open Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm Saturday 10.00am to 4.00pm Please note that the Crafts Study Centre will be closed to the public at Christmas and the New Year from 18 December 2012 to Monday 7 January 2013, reopening on Tuesday 8 January Free admission Research visits welcome by appointment please telephone WC accessible to wheelchair users induction loop at reception The Crafts Study Centre is a registered charity (261109)